(urth) Like a good Neighbor

[Gerry Quinn]

From: James Wynn 

> The first paragraph relates events AFTER he encountered and discoursed with  Krait. 


  Last night I stopped writing because I could not bring myself to describe the rest of that day, or the night that followed it, or the day that followed that, the day on which I licked dew from the sides of the pit, lying on my belly at first, then kneeling, then standing—and at last, when the Short Sun peeped over the rim and the dew was almost gone, wiping the stone above my head with fingers that I thrust into my mouth the moment they felt damp. Altogether I got two mouthfuls of water, at most. No more than that, certainly, and very likely it was less. 
Yes.

> The next event relates to EARLIER only shortly after he had encountered Krait.

  Earlier I had prayed, then cursed every god in my heart when the rescuer they sent had proved to be Krait. On that day I did not pray, or curse, or any such thing. 


> NOW the rhythm of is telling upended. You have been tricked by Wolfe's subtle story-telling
> (you are not the first, we've all been there). The next event takes place even earlier. 

That paragraph seems to refer to two separate days: the day he prayed and cursed and encountered Krait, and the next day, when he scraped dew getting only two mouthfuls, and did not pray.

And on which, I think, the long-nosed man appeared.  [Edit: I wrote “I think”, but read to the end – it is proven.]

  This is what I least wished to write about last night, but I am going to try to write it down this evening. *Once*, as I lay there at the bottom of the pit, it seemed to me that a man with a long nose (a tall man or an immense spider) stood over me. I did not move or even open my eyes, knowing that if I did he would be gone. He touched my forehead with something he held, and the pit vanished. 
  I was standing in Nettle’s kitchen. She was making soup, and I watched her add a whole plateful of chopped meat to her kettle and shake the fire. She turned and saw me, and we kissed and embraced. I explained to her that I was not really in her kitchen at all, that I lay at the bottom of a pit in a ruin of the Vanished People on an island far away, and that I was dying of thirst. 
  “Oh,” Nettle said, “I’ll get you some water.” 
  She went to the millstream and brought back a dipper of clean, cool water for me; but I could not drink. “Come with me,” I told her. “I’ll show you where I am, and when you give me your water there I’ll be able to drink it.” I took her hand (yes, Nettle my darling, I took your hard, hardworking little hand in mine) and tried to lead her back to the pit in which I lay. She stared at me then as if I were some horror from the grave, and screamed. I can never forget that scream. 
  And I lay in the pit, as before. The Short Sun was burning gold.


> This likely places the events with the long-nosed fellow (our narrator) on the night 
>before THIS happens (at the beginning of the chapter:
>"Sunlight warmed me. I kept my eyes closed, knowing that it would be painful to look at the sun."

How does that follow?  “Once” does not designate any particular time.  Nor does he say the weather was cloudy on the day after Krait came.

And come to think of it, he tells us right there!

**********************************************************
And I lay in the pit, as before. The Short Sun was burning gold.

It had crossed the pit and vanished on the other side an hour or two before, when the inhumu returned. 
***********************************************************

So we have an exact timeline.  The long-nosed man visited him the day after Krait’s visit, and Krait visited for the second time some hours after his astral trip.

This confirms what was already clear from the “thirst” clue.

- Gerry Quinn





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